< Previous50 COASTMONTHLY.COM | DeCeMber 2024 DESSERT ISLAND SWEET AND SOURDOUGH This cookie features ‘puddles of chocolate,’ a salty pop and surprising ingredient story by PHIL NEWTON | photo by JENNIFER REYNOLDS M any of us took up baking sourdough bread during the pandemic. And some of us continued to make the bread after life returned to normal. If you’ve kept your sourdough starter on a regular basis, then you probably look for recipes that use the discard from feeding it. For the uninitiated, a sourdough starter is an active colony of wild yeast and good bacteria cultivated by combining flour and water and allowing it to ferment, according to Bread & Basil, a blog by New York City creator Julia Estrada. By feeding it continually, you’ll have a reliable “natural yeast” culture that can be used to leaven breads and pastries of all kinds, Estrada goes on to say. Sourdough discard, the portion of sourdough starter removed during routine maintenance, adds depth and flavor to many baked goods. But most people don’t think about desserts when they think of sourdough discard, though it works in a lot of cases. This recipe comes from “The Sweet Side of Sourdough” by Caroline Schiff, who considers this the ideal cookie, with crispy edges, a chewy center, plus a butterscotch tone that comes from the brown butter and an overnight rest. Schiff describes the cookie as, “plenty of puddles of chocolate with a salty pop to finish.” My wife, Cindy, describes it as “Yum!” It is, in fact, the best chocolate chip cookie I’ve tried. It involves a little more effort, but is so worth it. PHIL NEWTON is a Galveston baker/cook. He’s the owner/operator of Stiglich Corner with partner Cindy Roberts.SOURDOUGH CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter 2 ⁄ 3 cup dark brown sugar 1 ⁄ 2 cup granulated sugar 1 ⁄ 2 cup ripe or discard sourdough starter 1 large egg 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 ⁄ 2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 3 ⁄ 4 cup bread flour 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon salt 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon baking powder 1 ⁄ 2 teaspoon baking soda 1 1 ⁄ 4 cup dark chocolate, chopped, divided 1 1 ⁄ 4 cup milk chocolate chopped, divided Flaky sea salt to garnish Brown butter and let cool. Transfer to a bowl and cover, place in the refrigerator until opaque and creamy, about an hour. Remove from the refrigerator. In a large bowl, combine sugars and brown butter to a wet-sand consistency. Add the start- er, egg, vanilla and mix to fully incorporate. Add the flours, salt, baking powder and bak- ing soda, mixing just until incorporated. Switch to a spatula and add 1 cup each of the dark and milk chocolate. Mix until fully incorporated. Save the remaining chocolate for topping the cookies. Scoop the dough into 2 tablespoons portions, placing them close together on a parch- ment-lined baking sheet. Cover and refriger- ate 8 hours or overnight. Preheat oven to 350 F and set 2 racks on the middle third of the oven. Remove cookies from the refrigerator. Com- bine the reserved chocolate in a small bowl. Roll each cookie into a neat ball (about the size of a golf ball) and dip into chocolate until a few adhere to the top. Arrange cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet, 3 inches apart. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until set and slightly golden around the edges but soft in the middle. Remove from oven and while still hot, sprinkle with a little flaky salt. Repeat until all cookies are baked. Allow to cool for 10 minutes. COASTMONTHLY.COM | DeCeMBeR 2024 5152 COASTMONTHLY.COM | DeCeMber 2024 Take a dive into these coastal restaurants good eats SPECIAL ADVERTISING FEATURE COASTMONTHLY.COM | DeCeMber 2024 5354 COASTMONTHLY.COM | DeCeMber 2024 COUNTER CULTURE ‘SMALL BUT MIGHTY’ Garage apartment features colorful and well-designed kitchen story by SHANNON CALDWELL photos by STUART VILLANUEVA A pair of stools with turquoise, emerald and navy paint patches inspired the color scheme for a jewel box of a kitchen in a garage apartment created for friends and family visiting Galveston. “I’m terrible with color, so I let designer Christine Plum do what she wanted, but I did show her these two stools I got from Nautical Antiques, and they became the inspiration for the kitchen color scheme,” islander Christine Bryant said. The stools have pride of place in the center of the kitch- en under a deep blue island topped with the natural wood of a butcher block countertop. At 9-by-12 feet, the kitchen is compact, but it feels much larger thanks to a mono- chrome paint scheme and oversized windows offering leafy views of the outside treetops. “When we first started working on the project, architect Cate Black said to me you will want to look at that tree when you are in the kitchen,” Bryant said. “She was right. Thanks to the windows, you feel like you are in a tree house.” Bryant, who is the chief executive officer of Vision Galveston, first contacted Black, founder and principal of Cate Black Architecture Studio, in February 2023. Bryant needed to replace the decrepit garage behind her mid- town bungalow and rather than simply rebuild she wanted to add an apartment above. Once the architectural design was finished, Plum was contracted for building and interior design for the project. Bryant wanted an all-woman team for the project, and she chose Black and Plum because of their strong design philosophies, she said. “I wanted a landing place for friends and family visiting Galveston,” Bryant said. “Not a short-term rental, but somewhere people could stay when visiting or when they first arrived here. I wanted it to be colorful and whimsical, a place with different elements for people to discover. It has worked out perfectly.” Bryant calls the garage apartment “The Hutch” in honor of her parents, Bill and Shirley Hutchins. COASTMONTHLY.COM | DeCeMber 2024 55 A pair of stools with turquoise, emerald and navy paint patches under a deep blue island topped with a natural wood butcher block countertop inspired the color scheme in Christine Bryant’s Galveston garage apartment.56 COASTMONTHLY.COM | DeCeMber 2024 COUNTER CULTURE (Clockwise from top left) Cate Black, right, designed the beautifully simple, retro-inspired kitchen in Christine Bryant’s garage apartment for friends and family visiting the island. The kitchen is compact but feels larger thanks to two oversized windows; floating shelves provide ample storage; with space in mind, a two-element electric cooktop is nestled into the natural wood countertop; pink canisters and a mint green electric tea kettle add pops of color against the kitchen’s monochrome paint scheme. “I think it shows that even with a small space you can be very intentional and create something beautiful that doesn’t necessarily have to cost that much more.” CATE BLACK COASTMONTHLY.COM | DeCeMber 2024 57 “They provided a landing place for any- one who needed it,” she said. “Whether you wanted food, comfort or rest, you could find it with them.” Black was attracted to the project because of Bryant’s commitment to design, she said. “I think it shows that even with a small space you can be very intentional and create something beautiful that doesn’t necessarily have to cost that much more,” Black said. Black is proud the garage apartment has thoughtful details such as wood siding that decreases in width for the top half of the build and oversized window framing for a more visually interesting exterior. The large windows and pocket doors in the kitchen create an open and airy space and with plenty of storage. In the apartment’s entry is an alcove with a bench seat and blue wallpaper with a strik- ing pattern of overlapping tree silhouettes. To the right of the alcove is a rich green-blue colored wall with a natural wood counter- top. There are deep blue custom cabinets above and below the counter and two rows of floating shelves in the same blue as the cabinets. Along the west and north walls of the kitchen is a natural wood countertop and two oversized windows. One window is in front of a two-element glass cooktop, and the other is above the kitchen sink. Floating shelves and custom cabinets provide ample storage. At the end of the countertop, there are more cabinets and a white, vintage-look- ing refrigerator. Silver-colored hardware on the cabinetry and large white tiles provide neutral color breaks from the blues of the cabinets and walls. An orange, mid-century-modern-in- spired light fixture above the island provides a pop of color. The natural wood of the countertops is echoed by the natural wood pocket doors closing off the kitchen to the living room that doubles as a bedroom. Finishing off the garage apartment are a large cupboard, a desk space and the bathroom. The garage apartment is “small but mighty” and has had rave reviews from guests who tell Bryant they love staying up in the treetops discovering the colorful design elements of “The Hutch.” BESTTITLECOMPANY 2024|2023|2022|2021|2020 BESTLAWFIRM 2024|2023|2022|2021|2020 BESTATTORNEY 2024|2023|2022 BESTACCOUNTING 202458 COASTMONTHLY.COM | DeCeMber 2024 HOMEPORT LIVING THE DREAM Couple makes a little island cottage all their own story by BARBARA CANETTI photos by JENNIFER REYNOLDS R osie Del Bosque and Julian Quiceno shared two dreams: to become nurse practitioners and to own a Victorian home. Their dreams have come true. The couple, who together graduat- ed from the University of Texas Medi- cal Branch nurse practitioner master’s program in 2020, found a little cottage in Galveston in June 2021 and with luck and a heartfelt letter to the former owner, Marty Yates, they were able to buy the house and make it their own. “I think it was meant to be,” Del Bosque said. “We wrote him and told him our story and he picked us. We couldn’t believe it.” The couple moved in and fortunately didn’t have to make substantive changes, except paint colors and furnishings. They liked the footprint and the layout and they threw themselves into the transformation, creating a cozy, interesting and efficient home within the walls of an 1879 Victorian. “I’ve been told I am an old soul — I love the old things, antiques and Victorian architecture,” she said. “I had even worked in geriatrics with older people.” She now is a pediatric orthopedic nurse practitioner at Shriners Children’s Texas; Quiceno is clinic director at St. Vincent’s Hope Clinic on the island. The changes the couple made only enhanced the house’s age-old character. They felt the living room, even though it was comfortable, needed a decorative fireplace and mantel. “I think the fireplace is now the room’s center, the focus,” Quiceno said. “We have furnished the COASTMONTHLY.COM | DeCeMber 2024 59 Julian Quiceno, left, and his wife, Rosie Del Bosque, hold their son, Samuel, in the living room of their 1879 Victorian home in Galveston. The couple bought the little cottage in 2021 and made a few changes to make it their own, including adding a decorative fireplace and mantel in the living room.Next >